


The Advent Calendar

by jolly_love



Series: Christmas Stories [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Advent Calendar, F/M, Gay Draco Malfoy, Gay Harry Potter, Getting Together, Good Slytherins, Gryffindor Bashing, Hermione Granger Bashing, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, POV Draco Malfoy, Pining, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Protective Slytherins, Ron Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:17:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 20,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21560302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolly_love/pseuds/jolly_love
Summary: Draco receives a mysterious package and opens it to find an Advent Calendar. Every day, he gets a new present while he and his friends try to figure out who sent it to him and hoping that it might be one specific person. Soon enough, all Slytherins are hooked on finding the real identity of the person who made this beautiful magical creation.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Christmas Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590694
Comments: 282
Kudos: 1110





	1. 1st December

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! I’ve decided to give you guys a special kind of advent calendar: I’ll be uploading a chapter every day all throughout December. The chapters are short (between 500 – 900 words), so it will do as a short reading break ;)
> 
> With this story I would just like to thank all of you who are interested in all my stories and ideas. I’m still getting kudos (and comments even) for finished stories and I love to see and read those, along with comments and kudos for still unfinished works.
> 
> Anyway: Thank you and enjoy the advent time!

“What’s that?”

Draco Malfoy suspiciously eyed the small package on the table in the Slytherin Common Room. A few other eighth years had been awake, but since it was addressed to Draco, no one had dared to open it. Sitting down on the smooth green couch in front of the present, Draco looked at it from every angle. It had been carefully wrapped and whoever had sent it, wasn’t the person to use too much cello tape, but still enough so it stayed closed until someone would open it.

“Does it say who sent it?” Draco asked, taking out his wand to cast a spell on it to see whether or not some weird magic was radiating off of it. Nothing.

Frowning, he grabbed it and shook it slightly. No noises reached the outside of the gift. Pansy Parkinson sat down next to him, clearly overexcited over what this weird present might be.

“Well, open it!” she pressured him and almost seemed to want to take it out of his hands.

Draco smirked over her enthusiasm and decided to act on her wish. Carefully, he slid his finger between the overlapping green paper and loosened the cello tape, before unwrapping the whole box as cautiously as he could.

Inside, there was a box filled with bubble wraps, which he gave to Gregory Goyle, and under said thing he found a brown miniature house of sorts with an almost familiar magical signature all around it. As soon as he touched it to get it out of the box, a soft bell sounded and a gray miniature donkey with dark grey stripes over its back appeared in front of the house.

“Merlin’s beard, this is beautiful!”

Pansy seemed to be taken away by this thing. She was about to touch it, but Draco felt a lot of jealousy inside his stomach. This was _his_ present! So he grabbed it and held it away from Pansy’s presence. She seemed to realize that she shouldn’t do anything to it and so she stopped, but smiled at him.

“Do you know who sent it to you?” Blaise Zabini asked, as he sat down next to Draco, looking at the house – but not touching it.

Draco looked into the box again and found a letter. He cast another spell on it, however, whoever sent this present was a rather skilled witch (or wizard) as even though he felt a magical signature, the identity remained sealed.

He opened the letter and found a beautiful handwriting. Sighing, he showed it to Blaise and Pansy, who both shook their heads. This was magical writing, which you could not use to identify the person having written it.

However, that was another unintentional clue, the sender was giving Draco. This was a rather specific spell, which was only written in one book. If he could look at who took said book, he could possibly find out who did it.

Finally, he decided to read the rather short letter.

> Dear Draco Lucius Malfoy
> 
> In the Muggle World, there are things called Advent Calendars: Every day closer to Christmas, you open a door, get a present or do something fun. As you may not have realized my interest in your person, I have decided to show my admiration for you through said Advent Calendar.
> 
> Every day, you will receive another figure for this stable (which is showing the scenery of how baby Jesus was born).
> 
> By the way, Draco: I know you will be trying to find out who sent this gift. But don’t worry: I have been working on this thing ever since I came back to Hogwarts. All the spells are on point and everything that could give away my person is destroyed. On the 24th, however, there will be a clue.
> 
> I hope you’ll like it.
> 
> -An Admirer


	2. 2nd December

Draco woke up and yawned. He stretched under the blanket and rubbed his sleepy eyes. There was light coming from somewhere, but he couldn’t find out from where until he opened his eyes and found his best friends standing around his bed with Pansy having her wand out to illuminate the room.

“Guys… This is creepy.”

Gregory chuckled, clearly way too excited for something. And Blaise shook his head, before he started talking. “Touch the stable, Draco!”

For a moment, Draco was confused what Blaise meant and even considered it to be some kind of code for something, when he suddenly shot up. With wide eyes, he looked over to his desk and got out of bed.

Pansy had wanted the brown stable to be in the Common Room, but Draco didn’t really like if people saw it. And what if someone broke it?! He was much more comfortable with this thing inside his room.

Walking to the brown thing, he sat down at the table, while his friends stood behind him, curiously looking at it. Softly, Draco touched it and another bell sounded, together with the one that had sounded yesterday.

This time, a manger appeared inside the stable. Draco looked closer and actually saw the animal moving. The donkey was currently making its way inside the stable to get some food from the manger that had just appeared.

“This thing is incredible!” Blaise said and Draco could hear his admiration for the stable and its surrounding magic, which he had to admit… he did share. The person in question had done something amazing!

When they all stopped admiring the Advent Calendar, Draco shooed them all out of his room and got dressed for the day. From time to time, he kept looking over to the donkey that was now looking around the place where it was going to be living for a few weeks. Just when Draco was questioning, whether or not, the donkey (and any future figures) could walk outside of the map, it almost crashed into an invisible barrier and turned around to trot into another direction.

Satisfied that he hadn’t had to put up any barriers, Draco left the room and met up with his friends to go to breakfast.

“I think if we try to look at the letter as if it’s a puzzle, we could find the person who sent the gift to you!” Pansy suggested and waited for Draco to say something.

Nodding softly, Draco agreed. “I do want to ask Madam Pince for a list of all the people that borrowed a specific book. Then, we can go to work on who sent the present.”

Blaise and Gregory agreed and so, they entered the Great Hall. Draco’s eyes darted over the people present. Since it was still rather early, there were just a handful of students here. In fact, the four of them almost doubled the number of people inside.

At the Ravenclaw table, Luna Lovegood was reading her father’s paper and drinking what seemed to be coffee. The Hufflepuff table was completely deserted and the Slytherin table was inhabited by two second year students, playing chess.

And at the Gryffindor table, two people sat there. An unimportant third year, who was reading some kind of theory book and… Harry Potter. It was odd seeing him alone and even weirder to see how he tried to behave like a normal student.

“I’ll be right with you.”

Pansy and Blaise turned around and saw him walking towards Potter, before they could say anything. Draco knew that they wanted to call something after him, but since there were a lot… or at least some people inside the Great Hall, they would be quiet until he was back at the Slytherin table.

Walking closer to Potter, he saw the Gryffindor looking up, when he had almost reached him. “Potter.”

“Malfoy. What do you want? I thought we agreed on a – whatever that was.” Potter rolled his eyes.

Draco had almost laughed loudly, but he schooled his expression quickly. “Peace treaty.”

“Uh-huh. What do you want?”

The so called Boy Who Lived seemed to be a little pissed off and also angry, though it seemed that he had been angry before Draco had arrived. “As you know we have a group project in Muggle Studies, Potter and I wanted to ask you to partner with me.”

The Gryffindor narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Well, if Draco was honest, he would have done the same if Potter had walked up on him and asked that without anything else.

“Why me?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Draco looked back to the Slytherin table, where he saw Pansy waving at him to come back to where he belonged. He turned back to Potter. “You know the most about Muggles. Next to Granger and I figured she’d be doing the project with Weasley, so I’ve decided to ask you.”

Whatever had possessed him to walk over to Potter and ask him to be his partner in the group project, it was slowly creeping away. He almost faded under the intense look the Golden Boy was giving him.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Draco raised his eyebrows. How was that possible? They had been enemies forever and now just like that Potter was ‘okay’ with them working together?

Potter nodded. “Yes. Okay. I think with my knowledge of Muggle stuff and your ambition to be better than Hermione, we could take her group down. And that’s literally all I want for Christmas.”


	3. 3rd December

Draco was in the library, studying the list he had gotten from Madam Pince with some difficulty, when Blaise and Gregory walked closer and sat down next to him. Without looking up, Draco wet his lips and stopped going through the names for a second to raise his voice.

“Yes?”

Blaise took away the list and finally, Draco looked up and threw his friend an evil glare. That did however not make Blaise give him back the list of names. Up until now, no name had spoken to him and he was getting slightly angry at the people who had lent the book.

“Draco, we’re worried about you.”

“Well, stop it. I’m okay. Just give me back the list, Blaise.”

The Slytherin shook his head and placed the list on the chair next to his. “You don’t understand. We’re worried about your health. Since this year started, you have been behaving weirdly and now this obsession over who sent you the present? It’s not healthy.”

For a few seconds, Draco stared at Blaise, trying to figure out what he had done to deserve this intervention, but he shook his head quickly.

“Everything is okay. I’m just going through a lot, you know. With my parents being in Azkaban and all. My mother’s getting free on New Year, but yes, that’s why I’ve been behaving weird. Now, can you please hand me back the parchment?”

Blaise seemed to be a little embarrassed by the fact that he had probably forgotten all about Draco’s family situation and wordlessly gave him the list back. They stayed around for a few more moments, before both headed out and did Merlin knows what.

In all honesty, what Draco had told them was just half of the truth. Yes, he was feeling weird, knowing that both his parents were in Azkaban and this was also the first time he’d be spending his holidays in Hogwarts, but the other part of the truth was that he had started to feel something again. Something he had suppressed all those years where the Dark Lord had been living under his roof.

Sexual attraction.

And of course, his life was never going to get any easier: It had been attraction towards no other but bloody Potter. This morning before class in their free period, they had started working on their Muggle Studies project. And when Potter had offered to do something and Draco had looked up, the sun had hit him in just the perfect angle and Draco had suddenly realized that his desires had returned.

This time though, he had finally realized that no… he wasn’t bisexual. He was fully gay and Potter was the one who had given him the realization. However, he couldn’t just tell that his friends. That was just full on weird. They had never talked girls or even sexual tendencies…

When Draco left the library, he had five leads and good motivations to get started right away. In the Slytherin Common Room, Pansy, Blaise and Gregory followed him into his room to get another figure of the Advent Calendar.

After his soft touch, three bells sounded softly through the air and an ox appeared. It was beautifully black and his miniature horns seemed to be very sharp. It stomped around the stable, greeted the donkey and went to eat something out of the manger.

“I can’t get enough of this thing!” Gregory said with dreamy eyes, while Blaise and Pansy agreed.

Draco smiled softly at the scene in front of him and held his finger into the calendar for the donkey to sniff at.


	4. 4th December

Today, when Draco touched the stable roof and the bells sounded, a young boy appeared with a big stick in his hands. He was leading the donkey around and kept looking around. Probably for something that he could do. When nothing seemed to appear for him, he had shrugged his shoulders and sat down at the wall, yawned and started sleeping.

“Okay” Pansy had grabbed the letter and was standing next to couch. She looked as if there was a huge tragedy happening and she was the theater freak who would tell the audience what had happened. Blaise was sitting on the floor, his back to the fire and a parchment on the small table, ready to write down all the details she was going to read for them. Draco sat on the couch, snuggled into his favorite, orange knitted blanked and looked at the scene in front of him, while Gregory had just entered the Common Room again with a few drinks.

Scanning the letter with her finger, Pansy soon looked up and grinned at Draco. “Whoever wrote that letter needs to have knowledge of how Muggles work, since they even said Advent Calendars are a Muggle thing!”

Blaise nodded and started writing.

“Sadly, there’s not much more inside here: But they’re writing about ‘coming back to Hogwarts’, so maybe they were gone for a period of time?” Pansy offered.

Gregory chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, since last year was a crazy year, almost everyone had been gone from Hogwarts. Most people even left the country. That doesn’t eliminate people; it’s more likely adding new names.”

“Well, whoever did this has a lot of strong magic. I could not detect any leaks in this present” Blaise added, writing down what he was saying.

Draco had to agree. “This thing is going to last twenty four days, guys. And they had to plan everything! I think that is very strong magic!”

Pansy snickered and pointed to the letter. “There’s another clue: they said they have been working on this ever since they came back. So we know for sure, that they’re not in fifth, seventh or eighth year.”

Gregory frowned and Draco felt himself tilt his head slightly. “How so?” he asked curiously.

“Do we really have free time, Draco? Fifth year are working for their OWLs and the seventh year and us need to study for our NEWTs. There’s no way, someone has their life so together that they can spend even more time on something like that” Pansy explained.

Draco felt slightly disappointed and narrowed his eyes, trying to find out why that would be. He quickly realized that he would have liked for Potter to have done this beautifully made Advent Calendar. However, Pansy was right: no one would have so much free time! For Salazar’s sake, they had been trying to find any free time for the past four days to finally get together and find out as much as they could about his present.

“So, what names have you collected?” Blaise asked and looked at Draco very interested.

Grabbing a parchment, Draco looked over the five names. He didn’t really like any of those. In fact, he had felt the disappointment ever since he had left the library. Potter hadn’t been one of the names he had collected.

However…

“The first name I found, which is the most interesting… is ‘Hermione Granger’” Draco explained and grinned.

Gregory rolled his eyes. “Nope. Next.”

“Now, hold on, hold on” Pansy frowned slightly, before repeating herself yet again. “Hold on, we should at least give this thought a try.”

“She’s got a boyfriend!” Blaise smirked and shook his head.

“But she is a Muggleborn and knows a lot about them” Pansy once again offered to which Blaise nodded and looked down at his notes.

He looked over them and bit his lower lip, before looking at Draco again. “Well, she does fit all of the things we know about the person sending this thing. So… give it a try?”

“I’ll ask her tomorrow” Draco decided.

Pansy shook her head and smirked slightly. “Draco… how will you do that? You can’t just walk up to her and ask her: ‘hey, I’ve got an Advent Calendar, did you sent it?’ That’s just weird.”

“Don’t worry” Draco chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I’ll do it better than that.”


	5. 5th December

Draco had stayed up until after midnight, working on some potion essay, which he wanted to be just perfect. For once in his life, he needed to be better than Granger. Especially in potions, which his godfather had taught him ever since he had been a child. And there was also Granger, a person who people have dubbed the brightest witch her age. She had always been better than him and every time, Snape had handed out the essays, Draco had felt his coldness.

Potter might have thought that Snape had hated him, but he hadn’t been the only person to believe that. In fact, Draco had once confronted his late godfather with this idea. However, Snape had always been way too good in Occlumency and Draco had never gotten anything else but a cold remark and a reminder that it was way past curfew.

About to turn off the light, Draco suddenly stopped and turned around to the stable. Theoretically, it was past midnight. There should be a new figure appearing now, right?

He touched the roof and five soft bells sounded. An older man appeared, a white beard in his face and wearing extremely cheap clothes. In his hand, he had a lantern and he was shining the way around the stable. As soon as he saw the young boy, sleeping on the wall to the stable, he shook him and woke him up. He then sat down and they started talking, though Draco couldn’t really hear any of what was happening.

“Are they father and son?” Draco wondered aloud and smiled softly. Even if they weren’t, the relationship they were starting to grow was somehow visible for him to see. “I love this.”

Whoever did this… whoever had spent so many hours of their day on this present had done a terrific job. The intricate details of all the animals, the sculpted faces with all the edges were just beautiful! Theoretically, you could have just done an ox and viola. But no. Whoever had done it also created some magic that looked like actual fur. And they even reacted to whatever Draco was doing.

When he had put his finger close to the donkey, it had actually licked the finger, before walking over to the manger to start eating. It was just amazingly crafted. 

“Why are you still awake?”

Draco turned to the door and found Blaise, leaning at the door frame. He also looked as if he hadn’t thought about going to sleep tonight. Shrugging his shoulders, Draco looked at the bed and back to his friend. “I don’t know. I don’t really feel like sleeping.”

Blaise nodded and waved him closer to follow him. Frowning, Draco thought about not following, but decided that he was too curious. His friend led him through the dungeons into an abandoned classroom. Dungeons had all kinds of empty classrooms, since most human beings didn’t like it there and moved away after a few semesters.

However, this classroom wasn’t like the others. It was lit up with a lot of candles, it had a few huge couches and actually took up three classrooms next to each other. There were tables, comfortable looking chairs, a small library and a fire. It looked like a Common Room, only that on the walls there were all house colors.

Draco turned around, frowning at Blaise. “What is this place?”

“You know, when we were rebuilding Hogwarts, I had an idea of a Common Room for all older students and McGonagall actually thought it was a good idea. So together with a few others, we built this place. Only a few people know about it, mostly the ones who built it. After Christmas, McGonagall wants to add a door from each Common Room, directly into this room. So, we can spend some time together with other people” Blaise explained.

“And you think it’s going to work?”

Smirking slightly, Blaise nodded. “I’m already sharing this room with a Gryffindor, two Ravenclaws and two Hufflepuffs. We get along great and I do like them all and we help each other through sleepless nights.”

Draco frowned, still not really convinced, but decided to let it go. It looked nice and if Blaise said that he was doing better because of it, he wasn’t going to question it. At least not with him around.


	6. 6th December

Today, Draco was going to meet Potter for their group project in the library, but he knew that if he was there earlier, he could probably bump into Granger and ask her… something. He still wasn’t quite sure how to phrase his question the best, but he needed to do this. He had been thinking that Granger was giving him this present for the past two days now and it was driving him crazy. Especially since in his dreams he wanted Granger to do this in the name of Potter.

So, fifteen minutes before he should be meeting Potter, Draco was in the library and quickly spotted Granger at one of the tables at the back. She looked as if she was hard at work with something and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Slowly, Draco crept up to her and realized that he even now had no idea how to ask her…

“Yes, Malfoy? What do you want?!”

Well, now that he was found out by Granger (who looked at him as if he was the last thing on earth she wanted to see right now), he could also just ask… something.

Clearing his throat, Draco got himself a little time and thought about the book he had taken from Pince and Granger’s name in inside. “You see, I’ve borrowed a book here and some notes where still inside. I’ve just wanted to ask, if they were yours, since you were the last person to have borrowed it.”

Granger looked a little surprised, before she shrugged her shoulders. “What’s the book?”

“Disillusionment Spells For Higher Levels.”

For a second, Granger looked as if she was having some weird thought, but she quickly schooled her expression and shrugged her shoulders again. “Sorry, no. I’ve borrowed that book to see whether or not it had something useful for my Charms essay, but there was nothing inside.”

Draco was on the hand rather happy about this, but on the other hand also a little disappointed. He thanked her and walked away. A little voice inside his head told him exactly why he was disappointed and he didn’t really like it. Granger could have just borrowed it for Potter to read. However, it looked as if that wasn’t the case.

Sitting down at the other end of the library, he waited for Potter to join him. Until that happened, his thoughts went back to this morning. In the stable, after six bells had sounded beautifully, a sheep had appeared and the boy with the long wooden stick had started chasing it around. 

Gregory and especially Pansy had started to laugh at it and claimed that they loved it even more now. Draco could definitely see how. Apparently all those figurines had a role and the boy seemed to be a shepherd, which also explained why he was just sleeping on day four (and five), because the reason he had his job wasn’t there.

“Hey.”

Draco got out of his memories and smiled at the Golden Boy, who just now sat down by the table. “Sorry, I’m a little late. I totally forgot about the time.”

Smirking slightly, Draco rolled his eyes. “Next time, be punctual, Potter.”

“Yes, Master!” Potter rolled his eyes, but Draco quickly hid the smirk that was forming on his face. No one needed to see that he actually liked to banter with the Wonder Boy.


	7. 7th December

“Next name on the list would be a sixth year called Emilia Dawlish.”

Draco looked up from the book in his hands and frowned slightly. Pansy had snatched the list of names and narrowed her eyes at said name.

Blaise who was lying right in front of the fire, shook his head. “Dawlish is a Hufflepuff girl, she’s bright yes, but she doesn’t know anything about Muggles.”

“How do you know?” Draco asked and put down the book, after carefully placing a book mark inside.

His friend sat up and turned his back to the flames, so he was looking at Draco instead. “I listened in on her discussion with her friends on how best to use a pen and she offered that one would use it to stir pudding. So, not the best candidate.”

Draco chuckled, even though he didn’t really like that his already short list was getting even shorter. Pansy rolled her eyes and read the next name out aloud. “Marcus Oddpick…?”

It was quiet for a few seconds, in which Draco was debating telling his friends about his sexual orientation. However, since there were still a few other students in the Common Room that didn’t necessarily need to know about who he fancied, Draco decided not to tell them yet. Maybe he could just play this off as a joke.

“That certainly is an _odd pick_ …” Blaise said and grinned, before Draco could say anything.

Gregory and Pansy chuckled and rolled their eyes. Draco slowly exhaled, somehow happy with how the situation was handled.

“Hey, I’m not judging” Draco said quickly. “I just looked through the names and wrote down the ones that had the book the most recent, since the letter was written then.”

Pansy smirked and held her hands up in defeat. “I’m also not judging, Draco. What house does he belong to?”

Draco narrowed his eyes. “I believe it’s Ravenclaw.”

“Which would make him smart enough to do something like that.” Gregory confirmed. “What year?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Draco answered the question that way. “I’ve seen him on the Quidditch pitch playing for Ravenclaw. That’s all I know.”

Blaise nodded. “Right, I remember. I think he’s a chaser. Well, he’s still playing so I believe he might be a sixth year.”

“Well, there’s another problem, though” Pansy sighed. She seemed to have remembered who this person was as well. She looked at Draco and shrugged her shoulders. “His father’s writing for the prophet and during your time in court, Oddpick – both, father and son – wrote a lot of evil stuff about you.”

Once again it was quiet for a minute, before Draco sighed. “Well, in that case only two names to go…”

He got up and walked into his room, brushing the stable roof, as he walked by. The bells sounded softly through the air and when Draco turned around to look at it again, an older man appeared. He was wearing green clothes and on his back he had a wooden basket. Looking around, he started grabbing wood on the floor and quickly assembled it to look like a pile of fire wood. He then proceeded to light it on fire and the young shepherd walked closer, seemingly tired from chasing after a sheep all day.

Smiling at the stable, Draco didn’t really realize his best friends walking into his room. Only once Pansy sat down on the bed did he look up and smile at them.

“Don’t worry, Draco. We will find out who gave you such a beautiful present! I also want to know who has such amazing magic to do something like that.”


	8. 8th December

How could it be different? The day had started just like all the others, where Draco had been surrounded by his friends, pressuring him to give the stable another touch so that another beautiful magically crafted figurine would appear.

This time, when Draco touched the brown wooden stable, another sheep appeared and the boy who had been sleeping by the fire jumped up, grabbed his stick and raced after the animal. The other sheep was standing inside the stable, munching on something out of the manger, while the ox and donkey slept inside a box. The man with the lantern was sleeping as well, leaning at the wall, his light right next to him. And the guy who had made the fire was currently looking for some more fire wood around the stable.

“It’s so freaking beautiful! We need to find the person who did this!” Pansy said and grinned at all of it.

“And we will!” Blaise smiled at Draco. “Don’t you worry about that!”

Well, first things first, Draco had to go and meet Potter for another brainstorming session. They had agreed on meeting right after breakfast. So all Slytherin walked to the Great Hall and while sitting down, Draco noticed a slight disturbance at the Gryffindor table.

From the looks of it, Blaise had seen it as well. He pointed to their table and Pansy and Gregory turned around to look at what was happening there. Potter sat alone at one end, even though his friends were awake and sitting at the table as well. Actually, Weasley was throwing him some evil glares, though Potter never even glanced in their direction, simply ate everything that was on his plate, before getting up and leaving the hall.

“That was just extremely weird” Pansy remarked when she turned back to face Draco and Blaise.

Everyone agreed and Draco kept looking at Granger and Weasley, who seemed to be lost in a very heated discussion. Right now Weaslette was joining them and it looked as if both redheads were ganging up on the Muggleborn.

Even though Draco didn’t really want to be involved in anything with those Gryffindors, his curiosity was raised. However, right now, he probably shouldn’t be asking them anything, since he was actually meeting Potter in the library for their project.

After he finished his breakfast, he hurried along the corridors and found Potter already sitting in the library, absorbed by a book.

“Morning Potter.”

He didn’t miss the small jerk and shocked expression on the Savior’s face, though Potter’s expression was back to normal in a matter of seconds. He seemed to have understood the art of schooling one’s expression.

“Malfoy. How are you doing?” Potter asked and closed the book he had been reading. There were two stacks of books on the table and the Gryffindor placed his book on one, looking at him curiously.

Draco nodded and sat down. “Okay.” He really shouldn’t ask about what had happened between him and his best friends, right? That was inappropriate… somehow… “What happened between you and your friends?” _Damn it, Malfoy!_ he chided himself. Well, now he could as well ask more. “I mean, I couldn’t help but notice how Weasley glared at you all throughout breakfast…”

“Ah, so you saw that” Potter sighed and shook his head. “I don’t really know how to explain this to you, but… Hermione found out something I didn’t want them to know. As you’ve so nicely put it, Ron didn’t want anything to do with me afterwards.”

This made no sense. What was it, that made Weasley freak out? “Sounds… mysterious.”

Potter smirked and rolled his eyes. “Well, Malfoy, please excuse my short and not really useful answer, but I don’t think I should be talking about this with you.”

Frowning slightly, Draco shrugged his shoulders. “Because we’re enemies?”

“No” Potter shook his head and smiled slightly. “Two reasons: First of all, because I don’t know how much I can trust you, we’re not enemies but also not exactly friends.” Draco silently had to agree. “Secondly, because we have some other things to do, right?” Pointing to the books on the table, Harry chuckled, which made Draco sigh and he nodded, grabbing a book to look for some inspiration.


	9. 9th December

The second name Draco thought could offer some explanation for his present fell flat, when he got to the question of Muggle Stuff and Carlotta Smith freaked out and was talking so much nonsense that Draco was sure she could never have invented something so intricate. Sighing, Draco was on his way walking back to the Slytherin Common Room, when he came across Potter who was talking to Luna Lovegood in the entrance of the hallway.

Draco stopped abruptly, hoping that neither of them had heard any steps (and then suddenly no steps at all). However, he was in luck, as they simply continued their discussion.

“Oh, don’t worry about them. They need a little space to coat their brains around this matter. Then, they’ll be able to accept you once more” Lovegood said in her typical weird voice.

Potter laughed and shook his head. He turned slightly to face his friend. In the light from the sun which was just then shining through the clouds, he looked very handsome. There was a hint of a beard and the cheekbones were suddenly extremely sharp. Draco had never really looked at Potter’s face, but right now, he couldn’t stop! And the smile, which Lovegood was sure to have placed there, made him look a little more carefree than before. “Luna, your idiom’s not exactly right.”

“Harry, you know what I mean. Life is just… hard and difficult to understand. That’s the definition of life” the blonde said and smiled at Potter. “I know that you understand this better than anyone else. I’ve seen what happened in the forest that night.”

Potter turned to the entrance and sighed quietly. “I know, Luna. It’s just hard to know that my friends have decided to turn their backs on me after we’ve been through so much together!”

Lovegood nodded and smiled at him. “I’ve asked the elves to bring me some left over steaks. Want to feed the Thestrals?”

Smiling slightly, Potter nodded and both left outside, while Draco continued walking down to the dungeon thinking about what he had learned now. When he entered the Common Room, he suddenly saw a huge group of Slytherins huddled up around something.

In a matter of seconds, Draco saw that his present had left the security of his own room and was now standing on a dresser in the Common Room. Turning around, he saw Pansy looking slightly guilty and he shook his head while he walked closer to her.

“What happened?”

Pansy bit her lower lip and shrugged her shoulders. “I wanted to give you back a book and left the door open. Theodore and some others walked by and saw the present. They quickly asked if they could maybe place it in the Common Room, where everyone could have something of it.”

Draco narrowed his eyes. “But it’s mine!”

“I know. And I’m terribly sorry for that.”

Sighing, Draco shrugged his shoulders. He knew that she never meant for this to happen. Theodore had always been a little nosy and well… Maybe if all Slytherins knew about this thing, they could help him find out who sent it.

He made his way through the people standing there and touched the stable. After some soft bells, a man appeared, holding a letter in his hands. Nothing else. And none of the other figurines really seemed to care about him, as they simply continued their routine.

“Read it, Draco!” someone yelled, but Draco simply took the letter and walked out of Common Room.

It seemed to be a shrunken down present. So in the privacy of his own room, he returned it to its original size, right when Pansy and Blaise walked in.

Pansy sat down at the desk and made big eyes. “What is it?”

“It looks like a book.” Draco opened it and found a page was written full. He sat on his bed and read aloud what was written there. “Hello Draco. By now, I am sure you have been trying everything in your power to find me. I am, however, rather sure that you haven’t. I do believe you might have some questions for me. So I will grant you some kind of a wish. This book is connected to one of my books. Everything you will write, I can read and vice versa. I hope this will give you a method of getting to know me without actually knowing who I am. People only see one side of me and I’d like for you to get to know another one. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. An Admirer.”

“Wow” Blaise sat down on the carpet and shook his head. “Whoever this is, is absolutely amazing!”

Pansy nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! You should write something!”


	10. 10th December

Draco sat there on his bed staring at the small book. What was he even supposed to write?! How did one start such a conversation? Nothing here made any sense.

This morning, the new thing in the stable was a red cat. Draco had loved it almost immediately. It looked exactly like Apricat, his very first childhood cat which he had loved dearly. It had looked at him and went down hunting something. And a second later, Draco had seen it riding on one of the sheep while the shepherd boy had tried to catch both, cat and sheep.

The lessons today had been boring and he hadn’t had the energy left to motivate himself through more than two lessons. Potions had been a disaster, after Granger once again took him down. In Muggle Studies, he was happy to have Potter by his side who had whispered the correct answer to him when the professor called his name twice in a row.

And now, he was sitting there, looking at that book. He carefully took a quill and started writing. Maybe he was too much in his own head and he just had to see where this whole ride would take him.

> Hi – I feel slightly stupid for writing into a book. For one, you could be taking me for a ride and this might end up… somewhere. But somehow, I do trust you.
> 
> I really want to thank you for this beautiful present. The cat today was on point.
> 
> By the way, you were right: I am trying to find out who you are. I do have some things to lose if some information gets out into the world. Any chance of you actually telling me?

Looking at what he wrote, Draco was actually happy about it. Smiling slightly, he yawned and left the book open, hoping that whoever it was, was actually writing back soon.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait too long. However, unluckily, Pansy, Blaise and Gregory were in the room, when the book started to glow in a soft blue color.

“Draco… what is happening?” Pansy pointed at the book and Draco jumped up rather quickly.

His eyes grew wide when he saw writing appear, though it was once again spelled so he couldn’t recognize the handwriting.

Looking up triumphantly, Draco smirked. “I’ve decided to contact the person sending this gift and now it appears as if I’m getting an answer.”

“Well, read it!” Blaise demanded and sat up straight, clearly very interested in all of it.

Draco chuckled and cleared his throat, before reading what was written there.

> Hey, I have to admit, I thought I messed up the book with its magic when I didn’t get a message, yesterday. Now I see that you just needed a few hours to think it through.
> 
> You’re very welcome for the present and as for the cat… I wanted it to be black, but my figurines sometimes have a mind of their own, so it kept changing the color to red. You should thank the cat, really.
> 
> Oh and no: I will not tell you who I am. I too have a lot to lose if this gets out. However, in some way, that already happened. So, theoretically I could actually tell you who I am. But I won’t. It’s so much more fun to have you go through all kinds of theories. But don’t worry: I will reveal myself on Christmas Eve.
> 
> An Admirer

“I like her!” Pansy grinned and nodded to herself.

Draco bit his lower lip, hoping very much that this was a man. Even though it would be very embarrassing to have a man stand before him and telling him that he sent him this present, but it would be even more embarrassing otherwise. Because then he would have to tell _her_ that he wasn’t into women and everyone would find out about it…


	11. 11th December

> Okay, so here are the answers to your list of questions. I will tell you already that I won’t be answering too many of them, since most of them are designed for you to find out who I am and I will not let that happen. At least not before I’m ready for this.
> 
> Question 1 through 4 will not be answered (you know damn right why. You can’t just ask for my name, dream job, favorite subjects or part in the war!).
> 
> Question 5: I’m not a Slytherin, sorry (almost was though). I’m a Gryffindor and I know that you don’t like them so I’m sorry already. (again)
> 
> Question 6: Tricky, but I will tell you that I’m not under sixth year. So sixth, seventh or eighth. Everything else would be a little weird, don’t you think?
> 
> Question 7 through 9: nice try! No answers for any of those.
> 
> Question 10: I have thought very hard about whether or not I should be answering it, but I’ve decided to give you a little hint. Well, no. Actually, there’s no hint with the question on whether I’m a girl or a boy, right?
> 
> I’m a boy, actually. And I hope you’re not appalled by that. Even if you’re not into that, we could still be friends… right? I promise not to make it awkward… well from now on.
> 
> Sorry, I’m already making this awkward… I’ll stop writing now…

Draco smirked at this and shook his head. That man or rather boy was cute. And he was relieved to find out that it wasn’t going to get even more awkward, having to tell a girl that he was gay…

He quickly picked up his quill and started writing a response.

> Good job in not making it awkward, really. To answer your unasked question: I’m not appalled, I’m actually really happy to know you’re male. Otherwise that would have been embarrassing, telling a girl that her crush might be gay…
> 
> And a Gryffindor? I know a lot of them, not really a bunch of friendly creatures. I hope you’re the exception, though. And I hate that you’ve seen through my master plan. Well, maybe starting with Question 1 on what’s your name was a little stupid, I agree.
> 
> I’m curious though: What gave you the idea to start this present? You said it took you over three months to build it. I guess I just want to know… why?

Getting up, Draco walked over to the stable and looked at the figurines. The cat was sitting on the roof, looking down on the scenery below. The shepherd was finally in control of both sheep and the guy with the lantern was checking on his lamp. The other guy was right now starting a fire, while donkey and ox were eating something from the manger.

He softly touched the stable and eleven bells with different notes, a new very low note, sounded. Suddenly, a girl appeared, a little older than the shepherd, but not as old as the two men. She was clearly about to be an adult. In her hands was a flute and she started playing music. It were Muggle Christmas songs, Draco had heard a few of those in his youth.

Wondering whether or not, the girl was going to play all night long and whether or not it was going to be loud, Draco took a few steps back and realized that the barrier was as the same time stopping the noises from reaching the outside. He couldn’t hear her play the songs a few steps back. But standing close, he could actually hear her.

Smiling, Draco walked back to the book, finding it encased in a soft blue light. That made him smile even more and he sat down on the couch, reading through the message, his secret admirer had left him.

> Wow, I never would have thought that you were gay… I’m so confused, surprised and happy at the same time… I’ve never felt that way and I hate it. Please tell me, you’ve been joking. No, truthfully now: I’m very happy that you don’t think I’ve overstepped. Thank you!
> 
> And concerning Gryffindors: yes, I see your problem; I’ve actually started to have a few problems with them myself. I was talking to my friend about something and the very next second, apparently I had said something wrong and they… well, who am I kidding? You don’t know me, so I can tell you the real thing.
> 
> I told him I was gay and I fancied someone. Next thing you know, he was telling me that this was unacceptable and that it was probably just a phase. Apparently, some of his brothers were gay for a time. Great stuff, huh? I’m not sure he’s ever going to look at me the same. 
> 
> However, I can calm your nerves: I’m a secret Snake, as the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin and I somehow convinced it to place me in Gryffindor. Weird, right?
> 
> As for this present: I just needed to take my head off of some things and I started crafting this. I never actually intended this to reach you, but once I was finished, I decided to let you have this thing. I hope you still like it!


	12. 12th December

Draco sat in the Common Room designed for all four houses. He had needed to get away from people and this was the only safe heaven he knew of. Where else could he go to be himself again? People had been pushing him around all day long. And everything had come to a stop when the other Slytherins had tried to pressure him into touching the stable to see what was going to happen now. He didn’t like that _his_ present was now something people wanted to see as well.

Sitting on the comfortable couch, he was way too taken in by his own thoughts to realize that the door was being opened and a figure appeared there. Only once the person spoke up, did he jerk back into reality.

“Malfoy?”

Draco raised his head in an almost alarmed state. In the light, there was Potter looking at him a little surprised. “What are you doing here?” he asked and frowned slightly. “I didn’t know you knew about this place.”

“Well, what are you doing here?” Draco asked back and rolled his eyes. He was a little on edge and felt how his question had been a little too angry for it to be a simply question.

Luckily, the Golden Boy ignored his temper within the question and simply answered it. “I’ve been helping Blaise Zabini, Hannah Abbott and Wayne Hopkins build this Common Room. We spent a lot of time here together. I honestly didn’t know you were here.”

Draco frowned slightly. “Wait, you’re the Gryffindor he’d been talking about?”

Potter nodded hesitantly. “Would you like me to leave? I mean, you were here first…”

“No, it’s fine.”

They looked at each other for a few seconds, before Potter made his way to the library and grabbed a book, sitting down at a table and taking out a parchment scroll. It was a little late for homework…

“What are you doing?” Draco asked and got up, hesitantly walking closer.

Potter sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “We needed to write a potions essay, right? Well, I totally missed that and Professor Madley’s giving me another few days, but I honestly don’t know how to do this correctly. And Hermione won’t help me anymore so…”

Draco frowned slightly. “Why won’t she help you? She’s always been rather nice and helping you and Weasley through your homework and stuff.”

The Golden Boy didn’t meet his eyes, simply flipped through the book. “We’ve been having a few arguments as of lately. If I’m trying to make her help me, she would probably just sabotage me.”

“That’s weird.”

Smirking slightly, Potter looked up again. “That’s Gryffindor friends for you.” Both were quiet for a second, before the Gryffindor started talking again. “Hey, you’re good at potions, right? Could you maybe help me?”

For a second, Draco thought about saying no. However, helping his crush, gave him a few more minutes of being close to him. So he settled down at the table and helped him with his essay.

It even took his mind off of everything and once they were done and Draco ended up back in the Common Room, he was also nice enough to touch the stable in front of everyone. This time, there wasn’t a figurine that appeared, but a cloud which made it snow down on the people. The room was suddenly filled with “Oh!”s and “Ah!”s.

Draco stood frozen for a few moments, before he turned and walked into his room, grabbing his book and telling his admirer that he was a fucking genius.


	13. 13th December

Draco woke up by a soft blue light illuminating the book. Yawning, he looked at the clock and saw that is wasn’t even four in the morning. He sighed and opened the book to find another message from his admirer.

> I hope I’m not waking you up. I just needed someone to talk to. Well no, I guess I needed someone who would listen to my problems without interrupting me and by writing this to you; you’re actually helping me more than you think. You don’t have to reply to this, by the way.
> 
> My friends have officially told me they want nothing to do with me and I don’t know how to fix this. They’ve told me that if I wasn’t being nice to them, they’d walk around Hogwarts telling everyone that I’m gay. Which also means, you might find out who I really am.
> 
> I’m not ready for this. For any of it.
> 
> First of all, I thought my friends were nicer than this. I thought they had my back. And seeing – or more feeling that this is not the case actually breaks my heart.
> 
> And now, there’s also you. And I like you and I do want to reveal myself to you, but on my own terms. I know it’s only a few more days to go, but… I don’t think they want to wait that long. I’m pretty sure they’d like to tell everyone around Hogwarts that I’m gay tomorrow.
> 
> I’m freaking out.

Draco read it again and narrowed his eyes. He grabbed a quill and started writing immediately. Something like that shouldn’t be ignored. And in addition... his admirer had some stupid friends.

> You’re friends sound stupid and I hate them even more already. Why did you hang with them, in all honesty? I get you and I know what you mean by revealing yourself to me in your own time. However, maybe you do need to do it now so that they can’t hold this against you – do they even know about the present you gave me.

Yawning, Draco stretched and got up to get something to drink. When he left his bathroom and walked back into his room, he found the book shining again.

> Oh my God, you’re actually awake… I am so sorry, I’m pretty sure I woke you up!
> 
> I’ve known my friends since I first attended Hogwarts. We had a pretty strong bond – or at least so I thought. Apparently though… everything can break. I liked them, which is why I spent my time around them.
> 
> And yes, both saw me working on your present, but only one of them actually knows who it was meant for. However, I do believe that after telling them I was gay… both started to realize who it was meant for.
> 
> I can honestly say that not even during the war I was as scared as I am now! I mean, if you die, you’re dead. Here: I don’t know what’s happening...

Draco chuckled a little. His admirer was clearly distressed and it was a little funny, how he tried to calm himself – which clearly wasn’t working. Who in their right mind would bring up the war to calm themselves?!

Grabbing his quill one more time, he moved into the Common Room to write something back.

> First things first, _chéri_ : You need to calm down. You can’t control everything that’s happening in your life. If your friends are going to be jerks, well they suck. If everyone at Hogwarts will find out about your sexual orientation, well who should care about that? You should take one day after the other, okay?
> 
> I’ll tell you what: If they somehow involve me into this shit, we’re just going to make it look as if we’ve been dating in secret for the past few months, which was why you’ve made me this present. All of my Snakes already love it to bits and I do too. So, don’t worry about that.
> 
> Go back to bed and try to get at least some sleep! And yes, you may have woken me up, but I’m glad I was there to help you over this dramatic little panic attack you had. Maybe another time, you can help me somehow.
> 
> Are you good now?

Draco placed the book on the table and read through what he had written once again, before walking over to the stable and touching it. A few bells sounded and an angel appeared on the roof with a trumpet in its hands. The angel had a white dress and lovely blond locks. Its puffy face was lit up with joy and it smiled at Apricat, which was curiously sneaking closer to the new inhabitant of this Advent Calendar.

Smiling over the beauty of this scene, Draco walked back to the book. He saw it glowing blue and was curious to see what he admirer had been writing now.

> I hate to admit it, but you’ve actually managed to calm me down. I am going back to bed, but I’d like to tell you that I don’t do it, because you told me to!
> 
> Thank you! I’m glad I have you to talk to.


	14. 14th December

Draco hadn’t slept well the last night. His admirer was freaking out and even though he tried to conceal it, Draco felt it. However, he couldn’t talk about this with him, since every time he started talking or rather writing, his admirer stopped all attempts to get to his real identity.

He also spent some time with Potter in the secret Common Room – sometimes with Blaise, sometimes with Hannah, but always with Potter. They had started to get along somehow. And Draco had taken it upon himself to teach him chess, so he was a better player than a child who learnt how to play a few days ago. They had an idea for their Muggle Studies project (started by Draco, who brought up Advent Calendars) and were hard at work. Draco was happy that Potter’s goal – next to getting a good mark – was to outdo his friends, since that was also Draco’s goal.

And so, when Draco came into the Slytherin Common Room, a few people stood in front of the stable, looking and making guesses what could be appearing next. Draco smirked and walked closer, touching the stable without waiting for anyone to place their bets.

The cat shrieked, but the shepherd boy seemed to be happy, as a dog appeared and brought all the sheep together. The people standing around the stable were blown away by its beauty and Draco smiled, walking into his room to write a small note to the person responsible for all of it.

> I've said it before, but I need to say it again: You are a genius! How long did it take you to do this masterpiece? I mean, how many times did you do something but failed?

Walking around in his room, Draco checked on his homework and whether or not he had everything he needed for tomorrow in his satchel. Luckily, this was the case and once he turned around, he saw another message in the book.

> Thank you!
> 
> And… I think it took me about three times until everything went okay. Today… today was the dog right? The cat hates him and I can’t do anything against it. There’s supposed to be some magic that can make both of them get along, but I just couldn’t seem to figure it out. So for now they hate each other.

Draco frowned. How did this man know that he had already made the dog appear? Otherwise he would have just spoiled his day. That wasn’t really nice!

Grabbing his quill, he placed the book on the table and started writing back quickly.

> Nice of you to tell me what figurine I will get today…

He didn’t have to wait long until the book glowed slightly blue and the answer for this not-question appeared.

> Aww poor you. Don’t worry: I know when you’re getting another figurine. The bells that are sounding also sound around me… So I know exactly when you touched the stable. I’m slightly happy that you haven’t missed a day so far. However, I do remember you once touched the stable in the middle of the night… So: Thank you for waking me up that night. – by the way, that was all meant as a joke (in case you couldn’t read between the lines here…)


	15. 15th December

“Tell us, what’s going on, Draco” Pansy demanded as she sat down next to him on the Slytherin Common Room couch. Blaise and Gregory took a seat around him, so he couldn’t get away even if he had wanted to.

Sighing, Draco looked over to the stable, where this morning, another sheep appeared which made the cat jump on its back to get a ride around the setting. Right now, the figurines seemed to have calmed down, so he turned back to his friends.

“Okay, so here’s the deal: My secret admirer wrote a few things. And before I can tell you all of this, I need to tell you some things as well.” That was probably too confusing for them, so Draco decided to just let the news out and hope that his friends were going to be nice to him after he had told them. “I’m gay.”

Looking at the fire in front of him, he tried not to glance at his friends. If they were going to abandon him, they could do it now. However, he hoped that they were going to stay.

Pansy placed a hand on his arm and when he turned to face her, she smiled at him. “We know, Draco. No need to be scared of what we might say or think. We still love you very much!”

“And we also know who’s the person you’ve got a crush on” Blaise continued and smiled at him as well.

Holding his breath, Draco waited for the name they were going to say, hoping that they weren’t right. For some reason he had always thought that he had hidden his desires well enough. Now, however, it looked as if that wasn’t the case…

“It’s Potter, right?” Gregory asked and for once, Draco was confused by how good all of they were in finding the correct answer.

He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. “How did you know that? And why couldn’t I hide this better?”

Pansy chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. “You’ve been following him wherever he goes. Ever since we started Hogwarts. It’s honestly not that surprising that you finally realize you’ve had feelings for him.”

Draco couldn’t help but smirk. She was right. Of course she was. Sitting back up, Draco shook his head. “So, you guys are okay with this?”

Blaise nodded. “Of course we are! Did you honestly think that we were going to abandon you after you told us something like that?! If anything, we’re going to protect you even more!”

“Please don’t.”

Everyone started laughing and Draco was incredibly happy to have such friends. He remembered his admirer and quickly told all of them the information he had learnt. His friends were really happy that said admirer was a boy and when Draco told them about how his friends were turning their backs on him, they all seemed to be angry.

“Why would they do that?!” Blaise narrowed his eyes, clearly unhappy.

Pansy shook her head. “Is it bad that I want to find out who this person is and hug him? He seems to have a lot of problems and from what he has told you, he seems to have to go through them alone.”

Draco shrugged his shoulders. “He’s not alone. I will be there.”

“But you can’t protect him from everything” Gregory said and thoughtfully scratched his forehead.

“If he’s ever outed, Draco. We need to go to him and protect him! We’ll pretend as if he’s been spending all of his time with us and that we knew about his sexuality for a while now” Pansy offered and had during this offer unknowingly referenced what Draco had told his secret admirer.

Draco smiled broadly and hugged his friends. “All of you are amazing! I love you all!”


	16. 16th December

Somehow, all of Slytherin had learned about the potential Gryffindor who was going to lose all of his friends and who was going to be outed before Christmas. Draco had started to adore his house, since they had been talking about that with each other, trying to come up with different scenarios and ideas of who it was and when it was going to happen. As well as the best option to make it look as if they had known said person for a very long time to make it believable that Draco and the other man had been dating for the past few weeks or months.

Draco himself had decided not to tell his friend through the book of what was happening inside Slytherin. He was a little afraid of what said person would think of him, because he had told his house all of what said person had written. Maybe he would think of it as betrayal and never ever talk to him ever again. He couldn’t have that!

Today, when he had touched the stable, another angel appeared in a white gown and with a flute in its hands, as well as a book. Draco had successfully weakened the magic barrier so that some music could get out and the Slytherins had enjoyed staying silent and listening to the Christmas music.

It was a weird Christmas this year: most of the Slytherins weren’t going home, since a lot of relatives and family members spent their time in Azkaban. The first batch of prisoners was going to be released on New Year’s Eve, along with Draco’s mother. But that still meant that no one was going to be home to look after all of them. In a way, Draco’s present was giving them all some peace of mind.

Draco met up with Potter in the library again, as they wanted to go through some books, though Potter had also told him that he had gotten some Muggle books for him to look at. And in fact, the second Draco entered the library, he saw Potter sitting at a table alone and Weasley and Granger sitting not that far away from him, glaring at the Golden Boy.

Frowning slightly, Draco walked closer and sat down on the empty chair. “Morning Potter.”

The Boy Who Lived looked up and smiled weakly. “Hi. Um – those are the books I’ve been talking about, by the way.” He handed Draco three books about Christmas traditions in the Muggle World.

Draco nodded and smiled. “Thanks. Now I finally reach your height of Muggle Intelligence.”

His nonsensical sentence made Potter chuckle and he looked already better than before. He shook his head, before turning to his books and Draco did the same, skimming through the first few pages to get something that would be important for their group project.

The second Potter’s friends left, Draco realized how tense Potter had been all the time. It was a little funny, seeing that originally, Potter had always been tense around him. However somehow, they had managed to work through all of this and even worked together rather good. Draco also remembered how well they worked in the Common Room together, even though they hadn’t really talked about it.

“Are you okay?” Draco asked after a few silent seconds.

Potter looked up a little confused, but smiled shortly after. “Yes. Don’t worry about me. We should get this project finished before Christmas, you know.”

Draco frowned. It didn’t really sound as if everything was okay…

“Listen, Potter. I know something’s been distracting you, so just tell me. Maybe I can help? Your friends seem a little cold as of lately.”

Potter shook his head. “I said don’t worry about it, Draco. I’m okay and…”

“Draco?” The use of his first name had surprised Draco so much he couldn’t stop but mention it. Potter looked at him frowning, before realizing what had happened. He widened his eyes and bit his lower lip, burying himself into another book, not looking up even as Draco tried to make him react.


	17. 17th December

“I’m telling you, it’s Potter!”

Blaise frowned at the information. Well, Draco would have done it as well, if it hadn’t been him who had finally spoken what was on his mind. All the details were fitting. All of them.

Pansy sighed and sat down in front of Draco on the small table, looking at him earnestly. “Draco, what makes you think so?”

“For starters: His friends have some kind of issue with him. I saw them yesterday and the way they looked at Potter was just very… strange. My admirer wrote that his friends had turned their backs on him, right? Do you ever see Potter with his friends, anymore?”

Gregory, Pansy and Blaise were quiet. They seemed to try and figure out when they had last seen Potter and his friends together and after a while they agreed with Draco’s observation.

“Didn’t your admirer also write that whenever you touched the stable, the bells we can hear, also sound around him?” Pansy asked and suddenly grinned at that thought. “What if we take the stable up into the Great Hall during breakfast and you touch it and see if it actually sounds from Potter or from any other person?”

Draco smirked and nodded enthusiastically. “That is an amazing idea!”

So, Pansy grabbed the stable and shrunk it down. It would be weird to have something huge like that and walk around Hogwarts. Also, if Potter actually was the person he had been writing with, maybe he would see the stable and run out of the Great Hall to try and make himself invisible.

When they reached the Great Hall, there was a huge commotion in front of it and in the middle they saw Granger and Weasley. Frowning, Draco looked at Pansy, who sent him a worried glance. They walked closer and started listening to what they had to say.

“And there he is! Malfoy!” Granger laughed and it seemed to be a little evil. What did Potter do to deserve that? Draco frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, while Granger continued. “Want to know something about Harry? Now you can really take him down! He’s gay! And if you need a little more to wrap your head around, guess who he's got a crush on!”

All Gryffindors booed and Draco shook his head. What kind of friends were those?

Granger clearly wasn't finished. "Malfoy, guess you didn’t think that Harry has a crush on you, huh?" She turned to the masses with clear glee over what she was doing. "He's got a crush on _Malfoy_! How sad is that!?"

Draco rolled his eyes, before glancing at his friends who seemed to wordlessly agree with him and their plan. Following his friends to the Slytherin table, he heard the Great Hall whispering about a certain black haired Gryffindor. And said Gryffindor sat at the table alone. He wasn't even eating, just staring at his food. Draco was sure that he was about to run and hide any second now.

Suddenly, Theodore had gotten up and walked towards the Golden Boy. They were talking shortly and the Slytherin then motioned him to follow. After looking around, Potter got up and almost snuck behind Theodore to the Slytherin table.

Once he stood there, people greeted him as if he had spent his whole time there. Draco noticed how especially the Gryffindors looked at all of them suspiciously. He waved towards Potter and he sat down on the opposite side of him.

“What is going on?” Potter asked after a few silent seconds.

Draco smiled. “Well, the Snakes have decided to adopt a lonely Lion. Unless you’d rather go back to your pride?”

Potter’s smile was weak, but existed nonetheless. “No thank you. I think they don’t really like me anyway.” He was quiet for a moment, before he looked back up. “So… all of Slytherin’s okay with me being here?”

Draco nodded and when Potter looked down the table, Draco followed his gaze to see that almost none of the Slytherins looked at him weird or even at all. It seemed as if Potter was just one of them now, so why make a fuss out of it?

Draco looked next to his seat and found the stable that Pansy had brought here. He turned back to Potter who was still taken aback by how easy all the Slytherins were taking it. Before he could think it through (and maybe not do it), Draco touched the stable and heard a few faint bells from the stable but also from the man opposite of him.

As soon as the bells had sounded, the Slytherins looked at Potter, smiling and finally confirming that he had been the one to make such a beautiful gift. The Golden Boy’s eyes, however, were fully glued on Draco and after what seemed like eternity, there was a soft smile on his face, replacing the shocked expression.

“I should have known you were trying to do something like this.”

Draco smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, don’t give a Slytherin information like that!”

Potter chuckled. “Maybe I wanted to see how long it would take you to find out it was me? Maybe I should have destroyed the bells first. To be honest, that was just some magic I couldn’t figure out. So I kept it there.”

Draco laughed and his friends soon joined. Pansy leaned closer and had almost love hearts in her eyes. “I love what you did! It’s so beautiful and… I love it!”

Slightly taken aback, Potter smiled at her and thanked her for the compliment.

“By the way, what’s supposed to be there today? I shrunk it down, so I can’t really see” Draco explained, which made Potter smile weakly.

“The star of Bethlehem.” Potter smiled at all of them. “Thank you by the way. For saving me, you know.”

Draco nodded. “Even the Savior sometimes needs saving.”


	18. 18th December

Draco found Potter in the Common Room for all four houses and smiled at the mess around him. He seemed to be hard at work on some topic for Charms or DADA. At least, some topic where a lot of books were needed.

“Good evening, Potter.” Draco leaned at the door frame, smirking at the black haired wizard, who jerked up at the sound of his voice.

“Good evening to you too, Malfoy.”

Turning back to his books, Potter clearly had no intention of going to dinner. Draco hadn’t seen him all day long, but now he really wanted to talk to him. This morning, the stable had conjured a woman who was happy to provide all the figurines with food. She looked more like a mother to all the children around and Draco (and all the other Slytherins) had smiled at it.

“Are you coming to dinner?” Draco asked and grabbed Potter’s attention.

The Gryffindor shook his head. “No. People kept looking at me really weird all day long and I don’t need that now.”

Draco waited for another few moments, before walking into the room completely and closing the door. He knew that his friends were waiting around the corner for the two of them to make it to dinner, but maybe he needed to convince the Gryffindor some other way.

Potter looked up and frowned slightly. “What are you doing?”

Instead of answering, Draco walked closer and sat down by his side. “You know, people have been looking at me weird too. And you might not have realized that, but all Slytherins have been protecting you throughout the day. Whenever someone had said something untrue or unjust, we told them "our" truth. Most people have actually started to believe that we’ve had a longer relationship than just a few days and that we’ve kept it secret all this time, because we didn’t want people to look at us weirdly. The other houses also believe that you’re spending all of your free time in the Slytherin Common Room. Well, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff do.”

“Why?” Potter frowned at him and sat up in his chair.

Draco thought about what answer he could provide the Golden Boy, looking around the room. He settled on Potter’s eyes and felt his breath taken away. His heart sped up and suddenly, there were no more words necessary.

Leaning in, he captured the Gryffindor’s lips in a soft kiss. Harry seemed to be surprised at first, but threw his hands around his neck a second after, drawing him deeper into the kiss. Draco felt goose bumps all over his body and he got up, just to straddle the Gryffindor on his own chair, never breaking the kiss. Harry tasted like sunshine, rainbows and chocolate. And even though it didn’t make sense, Draco couldn’t get enough of it. That was, until they were broken apart by Pansy’s voice.

“Hey there, lovebirds, if we want something to eat for dinner, we should leave _right now_!”

Harry blushed and licked his lips, before nodding and Draco got off him, also slightly flustered. Pansy smirked triumphantly to which Draco simply rolled his eyes. He hated to see her like this, but he also liked what had happened between Harry and him. So when they left the Common Room, Draco grabbed his hand, holding it until they arrived at the Slytherin table.

Draco loved how his house had accepted Harry as an honorary member of their house, since they greeted him just like one when they walked along the table to find a place next to Theodore and Gregory on the other side.

Before they could start a discussion, however, a few Gryffindors stood next to them. Leading the pack or rather pride was Weasley and he looked more like a lion about to attack an antelope than a former best friend.

“I know for a fact that you two are not together” Weasley started and made both Draco and Harry roll their eyes. “We’ve been over this for some time! I know that you made a present for him so he would finally see you!”

Harry smirked weakly, clearly trying to look as if he didn’t care about what his friend was talking about. It wasn’t however Draco or Harry who spoke next, but Pansy, turning to Weasley and frowning.

“Aren’t you at the wrong table Weasley? Go back to Gryffindor, little Lion.”

Draco caught Harry biting back a smirk and intently looking at his former best friend. Weasley shook his head and looked at Harry with narrowed eyes.

Before anyone could say something, Weasley snorted and was apparently ready for another attack. He wasn’t focused on Harry anymore, but rather on the Slytherins. “Alright. Let’s play this game. You think you know him better than I do, huh? What’s his favorite color?”

Harry groaned and shook his head. Draco smirked, turning to the pride of Gryffindors. “Bluebird blue.”

Weasley frowned at him. “What kind of a color is that?!”

“Harry’s favorite” Draco answered with a visible smirk on his face.

The other Gryffindor huffed and shook his head, clearly not believing him. The two of them were suddenly involved in a fast and somehow high staked question-answering game. Draco didn’t realize how all of Slytherin started paying attention to them and slowly other houses followed.

All of that ended with Harry standing between Weasley and Draco and kissing the Slytherin in front of everyone to see.


	19. 19th December

People were packing. Well, the other houses were packing, while Slytherin was resting in its Common Room. Of everyone here, only the first and some second years were going home, the rest had decided to stay at Hogwarts.

There was a first time for everything. And everyone.

Draco walked into the Slytherin Common Room, just to find someone else not entirely belonging to Slytherin in said room.

“Afternoon Potter.”

Harry looked up, slightly uncomfortable and smiled weakly. “Hello _Malfoy_. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do here, people just kind of kidnapped me.” While he said the last part he looked pointedly at Pansy and Theodore who grinned back at him.

Smirking over his friends’ action, Draco shrugged his shoulders. “Well, you’re always welcome here.”

“But I’m not Slytherin.”

Blaise, who had just walked in, smiled at Harry and put an arm around his shoulders, directing him to a chair. “Calm down, Potter. All of Slytherin knows what you’ve written in Draco’s book. And we all like you for bringing joy to Draco’s life. So relax, stay here, _talk to people_.”

Harry narrowed his eyes at Blaise. “Why would you say it like that?”

The Slytherin smirked. “Because all of the other things you always do at the other Common Room, you know…” he winked at him and Draco realized that he meant the Common Room for all four houses. “And talking to people would be best in this Common Room.”

Sighing and obviously being defeated, Harry took a seat in one of the arm chairs. Draco smirked once again and walked over to the stable, touching the roof. After some bells sounded, a little mouse appeared. Pansy stood immediately next to Draco, staring at the little animal.

Apricat appeared and snuck closer, before starting to play with the mouse. It didn’t look as if they hated each other (or as if the cat wanted to eat it), but simply as good friends.

“It’s so cute!” Pansy said and let out a little shriek.

Draco and Theodore started laughing and when he looked over to Harry, he saw him grinning slightly. Gregory walked in, followed by some of the other Slytherins. None of them seemed to care that Harry was in their Common Room, since they simply started doing homework, talking to each other or showing off their magic. Even though the Savior looked a little tense, Draco saw how he relaxed after some time.

Walking over to the Golden Boy, Draco smiled softly. “How are you doing?”

“Better now” Harry answered and pulled him right on top of him, kissing him softly.

They were quickly interrupted by Blaise shouting next to them. “Get a room!”

Draco smirked at him and got up. He grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him with him. “I think I’ll do that” he said, winking at Blaise. Harry blushed immediately, but did nothing that would indicate he wasn’t into it. So Draco simply made him follow him into his own room, while some others were calling something after them, which he didn’t really care about.


	20. 20th December

When Draco woke up, he rubbed his eyes and frowned at the space in his bed. Usually, he had far more! Yawning, he opened his eyes and turned to face a sleeping Harry. He was breathing calmly and his face, which was usually so tense and where you could really see how much emotional and physical baggage he had to carry around, was completely relaxed. He looked peaceful and happy.

Draco smiled and turned to his side, hugging him tightly and kissing his forehead. Harry made a quiet noise, but did not wake up yet. Softly, he stroked through the Gryffindor’s hair, massaged it slightly, until Harry moved a little and turned around, unintentionally making Draco spooning him. However, Draco had absolutely nothing against it; simply put his arms around him and pulling him tighter.

After a good thirty minutes, Harry seemed to be about to wake up, so Draco kissed his neck softly and whispered into his ears. “Good morning, darling.”

Harry turned around in his arms and presented Draco with a beautiful bright smile. “It’s probably far too early to tell you this, but I love you.”

Draco was floored and looked at Harry with what he assumed was a clear love-struck expression.

“Has the cat got your tongue?” Harry asked quietly and smirked.

Chuckling, Draco leaned over and kissed the Gryffindor. Since said Gryffindor still was in Draco’s arms, he tightened his hold again and felt Harry’s arms snake around his lower back as well, holding him close.

“I love you too. And yes, I agree it’s far too early to say something like that. I mean, our relationship started what… five days ago?” Draco smirked.

Harry nodded and smiled still a little sleepy. “Yeah, but I feel as if our relationship goes back to our early childhood.”

Draco shook his head, but kissed Harry’s cheek. “You’re weird.”

Giving him a lopsided grin, Harry only sounded his approval, before nuzzling into Draco’s embrace again. Usually, Draco did not really like physical contact, but with Harry it was something completely different. He would never get tired of his warm body, soft touches and the typical scent of the Golden Boy.

Both of them were just about to fall asleep again, when the door was yanked open and both inhabitants flinched by that action. Draco calmed down much faster than Harry and he only calmed down, after Draco forcefully pulled him back under the blankets.

At the door stood Blaise and Pansy, looking inside a little surprised. “First things first, Draco” Blaise started and grinned, when he walked inside. “Why are you still in bed, it’s almost ten o’clock. Secondly, the younger years want you to touch the stable before they leave. So, get out of bed and…”

He had caught sight of Harry’s face next to Draco’s and stopped dead in his tracks. Unable to form any other orders at his friend, Pansy seemed to be willing to do some of those for herself.

“Draco! Get your lazy ass out of bed! Come on!” She clearly had the intent of saying more, when Blaise grabbed her arm and tucked her out of the room.

Harry chuckled and turned to Draco. “I do think you need to be nice to the younger years and touch the stable before they leave.”

Draco shook his head. “No. It’s warm and cozy under here and… and you’re here!”

“I will still be here when you come back.”

Raising his eyebrow, Draco shook his head, but seemed to be defeated. He got up, grabbed some clothes and turned back to Harry. Smiling, he walked closer and drew him into a kiss. Before he let go of Harry, he grabbed his arms and conjured some rope, tying the Golden Boy’s arms over his head to his bed.

“What are you… Draco!” Harry looked at the rope, tried to get free for exactly two seconds, before he lay back and smiled at him. “I guess I won’t be going anywhere.”

Draco smirked. “No, you won’t. Any wishes for breakfast?”

“Surprise me.”

Grinning slightly, Draco kissed him again, before he walked to the door where he stopped and turned around. Harry had been watching him closely, with a beautifully defeated expression on his face, which soon transformed into a huge smile.

“You know you can use magic to get these off, right?”

Harry chuckled and winked at him. “I know.”

With that, Draco walked out and charmed his room, so that nobody would be able to walk in there, no matter how much they wanted. He had left Harry in quite the compromising situation, nobody needed to see this.

The Common Room was full of people standing around the stable, when Draco touched it softly. A woman appeared who was knitting clothes, sweaters and socks mostly, for the people there. Draco smiled when Apricat tapped closer and had apparently found his place in the yarn basket.

He stepped back and let the younger years look at the stable. When he wanted to walk out to get something from the kitchens, Theodore stepped into his way.

“Where’s your Gryffindor?” he asked and grinned.

Draco smiled at him. “He decided to stay in bed for a few more hours. I’m bringing him breakfast.”

“Nothing else?”

Grinning, Draco shrugged his shoulders. “No. Nothing else.” He walked around Theodore, who didn’t really believe him, and towards to the kitchen. Even if his friends wanted to get into his room, not in a hundred years would they be inside. It wasn’t new magic for him. And he was glad he knew it, otherwise he would have probably freaked out – and Harry probably as well.


	21. 21st December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops, sorry for the longer chapter, I was suddenly so caught up in the discussion that happens at the end that I totally forgot about the word count xD Well, if you wanted a slightly longer chapter, here you go ;)

Another angel had appeared once Draco had touched the stable this morning. It was wearing another white gown with a small harp. All three angels were singing the most beautiful Christmas songs for all Slytherins present. The sheep were running around and not even the dog could get them under control again, while the boy was sitting on the opposite side of the girl with a flute, listening to what she was playing. Apricat was playing with the yarn and the adults were looking after the animals around.

Draco smiled at the slightly chaotic stable scenery and walked out of the Common Room, looking for his boyfriend. They had wanted to do homework together, however, his amazing boyfriend never surfaced. So, he needed to look for him.

He wasn’t in the newly Common Room, but he found Blaise and Hannah there, who decided to tag along and maybe do homework as a group. In the library, Pansy and Theodore joined them as well and while the Great Hall was almost empty (except for Gregory who followed them), in the kitchen, they found Neville Longbottom who was happy to be found. Draco was sure the Gryffindor had somehow lost his way again around Hogwarts.

Finally, he saw someone who resembled a certain Harry Potter outside in the courtyard. Draco stopped and narrowed his eyes. He had apparently completely ignored the weather until now. It was snowing heavily. Harry had a lot of snowflakes in his own hair and was basically a walking snowman. Neville and Hannah grinned both and walked out into the snowy weather, greeting Harry loudly.

The walking snowman ran towards the Slytherins soon after he had greeted his friends. “Hey guys.”

Draco couldn’t hide the smirk that was forming on his lips. Harry had red cheeks, a red nose and well, basically his whole face was red and probably cold as well.

“You do realize that there’s a thing called warming charm, right?” Theodore said and grinned slightly.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “Where’s the fun in that?! Come on” he grabbed Draco and pulled him into the cold weather.

Shaking his head, Draco tried to get away and back into the warmth, but Harry had a strong grip and pulled him closer, kissing him right in the snow. Well, Draco couldn’t really say no to that, right?! Actually… Seeing the life and enjoyment in Harry’s eyes made the snowy day even better.

Draco laughed and hugged his boyfriend, joining the Gryffindors and Hufflepuff in finishing Harry’s started snowman. He knew that his friends were probably surprised to see him that way and he had in fact been right: Theodore and Blaise stood next to him in a matter of seconds.

“Harry, what did you do with Draco?” Blaise asked and frowned, but couldn’t hide the grin on his face.

The Golden Boy appeared next to them and smiled at Blaise. “What do you mean?”

Laughing, Draco walked to Harry who put his arms around him. In his hand, which had been behind his back before, was a small snowball. Blaise pointed at him and shook his head even more.

“Okay, so… Draco doesn’t like people touching him, yet there you two are” he started and it actually seemed as if only this small action of Harry putting his arms around Draco and pulling him closer, was blowing Blaise’s mind.

Theodore continued his list. “Draco’s not a fan of snow! How is he…” he turned to Draco himself, shaking his head. “How are you okay with being out here?!”

Harry hugged Draco even tighter and instead of answering, threw his snowball right into Theodore’s face. After some commotion, in which Harry pulled Draco towards his side of the newly established game, and Pansy and Gregory quickly came to aid their fellow Slytherins, a full on snowball war broke out.

Draco was fighting next to Harry and his friends, Neville and Hannah, while all of his Slytherin friends had formed their own kind of front. In fact, the fight had been pretty much equal. And after a good thirty minutes, everyone had been worn out and Draco finally managed to get Harry out of the snow.

The group headed towards the kitchen, when they encountered a few people staying at Hogwarts who weren’t all that friendly. Two Weasleys, a Granger and a few other Gryffindorks.

“Enjoying your freedom while it lasts?” Weaslette asked Draco. He could only roll his eyes. This question, he was not going to give a thought.

Harry stepped forwards and looked at the Weasley clan. “Why aren’t you guys home? You’re almost always home for Christmas.”

Weasley stepped forwards as well and narrowed his eyes at him. “Yeah. Except when some whiny Gryffindor tosser decides that maybe the world needs saving so I can’t go home. Or maybe it’s because that little shit doesn’t have family, so I decide to spend Christmas here. What do you think am I getting back from this wanker?”

Before Harry could say anything, Draco and basically every other Slytherin in their group had already formed some kind of shield around him.

“Don’t talk to him like that” Theodore said angrily.

Weasley seemed to be really angry at everyone who was standing around Harry, including Neville – a fellow Gryffindorian.

“Who are you to tell me that?!”

As Draco stepped forwards, he could feel Harry’s hand on his back, seemingly trying to hold him back. “His boyfriend.”

There was a short pause in which Draco saw Weasley being surprised, before he shook his head. “Potter, I would think you would know your place in this world.”

“How about you know yours first” Harry said and stepped out behind his protectors. “I know my place: I’m the Savior.” He was quiet and smiled politely, though with an air of superiority. Draco shared a look with his fellow Slytherins. This Gryffindor was a Slytherin through and through. “I’m the one who saved the entire Wizarding World. And what are _you_ , Weasley?”

The Gryffindors stared at him as if he had somehow played a secret card in Exploding Snap and won the entire game. They quickly left all of them alone and the group made their way through Hogwarts into the kitchen without any other disturbances.


	22. 22nd December

Harry sat in the Slytherin Common Room, playing some kind of Muggle game with Draco’s classmates, when Draco entered. He had been in Hogsmeade, getting a Christmas present for Harry. He had been colder than cold and looking forward to sitting in front of the fire, when he saw his boyfriend explaining something.

As soon as people had recognized Draco, they walked up to him, trying to make him touch the stable as soon as possible. Draco wasn’t in the mood for arguing and touched the stable quickly, before heading to his room and changing his clothes (also hiding Harry’s Christmas present).

When he walked back, he saw the Slytherins playing a strange game and Harry being the only one standing in front of the stable. Smiling, Draco walked closer.

“What are you looking at?” he asked his boyfriend.

Harry turned around and quickly pulled him into a hug. Draco didn’t really want anyone to see this, but being in his personal Gryffindor’s warm embrace was everything he needed to forget about the world around him.

“It’s Joseph. You know, every time I conjured him I thought about how best to tell you that I was the one sending you this stable. And none of my ideas where good enough. That was until I had the idea of the book. Still, I wasn’t sure if you’d believed me or if you would have thought that someone was joking.”

Draco chuckled and kissed Harry’s neck, which made him shiver softly. “Probably both.”

Shaking his head, Harry smirked, when Draco looked up at him again. “It’s either this or that. Not both!”

“Well” Draco grinned. “My hopes would have probably told me to believe what’s written in this book, but my conscience would have quite definitely told me that some idiot thought it was a good idea to play a prank on me.”

Harry nodded. “Just so you know: I’m not pranking you.”

Draco sounded his approval and drew Harry into a passionate kiss, which was sadly interrupted rather quickly.

“Get a room, you two!” Pansy walked by and shook her head.

“Look away if you don’t want to see this” Harry countered and Draco started laughing, along with almost every Slytherin in the room. Nobody dared to counter Pansy’s sarcastic remarks. Every Slytherin knew what happened if one would beard the lion in his den. Well, maybe a lion wouldn’t know that.

Pansy turned around and frowned at Harry. “Maybe I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to see this! But I’m the only brave one to talk to you.”

“You should have been a Gryffindor then, Pansy!”

“No thanks. That tower’s a little high up for my precious little ass.”

Harry smirked. “Not high enough for your ego, though.”

By now it was so quiet in the Common Room that you could have heard a needle falling. Draco as well as everyone else knew exactly that Pansy loved to play-fight. And by the sounds of it, she had found a worthy match in no one other than Harry Potter himself.

Pansy grinned at Harry. “Why, pray tell, do you have some experience with a huge ego, Potter?”

“Not even a little. I keep finding out new stuff about me in various newspapers.”

“For example ‘The What-Exactly-Did-Potter-Eat-For-Breakfast’?”

Harry smirked. “No you’re confusing it with ‘Parkinson’s-Weird-Breakfast Edition 204’.”

Pansy was just about to counter, when Harry just kept on talking. “It supposedly is a real fun read, full of almost successful burns and banter tips, along with some not really nutritious foods for breakfast and some weirder choices. Honestly, who puts poached eggs on toast together with marmalade?!”

“You’re just jealous because you hadn’t thought of something like that!” Pansy counter and smirked.

Harry laughed. “No, I’m jealous, because somehow no one has ever told you about your weird breakfast habits in eight full years! How is that possible!?”

The Slytherins started laughing and Pansy grinned at him. She walked closer and held out her hand. “You’re a worthy banter partner, Harry. I’m glad you’re with Draco, that way I can see you often.”

“And I will hopefully be far away should that ever happen again” Draco said, rolling his eyes, while Harry grinned and accepted Pansy’s hand in what Draco was sure was defeat on her side.


	23. 23rd December

A blue light suddenly attracted Draco’s attention and he looked at his desk, where the book he had gotten from the Advent Calendar was shining. Frowning slightly, he walked over to look at what was going on. Was Harry in reality not the one who had sent him the stable? He didn’t like to believe that…

He opened the book to find a very short message.

> Tomorrow’s Christmas!

Draco smirked and grabbed a quill answering quickly and with a constant grin on his face.

> Actually, no. Tomorrow is Christmas _Eve_. Christmas is the day after tomorrow.

He kept grinning, while he placed the book away from him und grabbed his essay again, checking for any sort of mistakes. After what seemed to be forever, the book was again surrounded by a soft blue light.

> I bet you’re fun to be around at Christmas parties.

Grinning, Draco answered one more time.

> I am, thank you for realizing that. Now, why are you writing through this book? You could just as well come down to Slytherin Common Room! Or just walk into my room. Be a nice Gryffindor and come over here. I need someone to cuddle.

“Way ahead of you” he suddenly heard a voice behind him and when he turned around, Harry stood at the door entrance, a book in his hand and grinning at him.

Draco smiled and shook his head. “What are you doing? Why are you writing through a book and not talking to me?”

Walking into the room, Harry sat down on Draco’s favorite chair and placed his book on his laps. “I thought maybe I had to prove to you once and for all that I’m the one who sent you the present.” He grinned. “You know, in case you thought I was just trying to play you.”

Draco shook his head, but didn’t get any time to ask something, as Harry grabbed his hand and made him walk into the Common Room. Almost all Slytherins were looking at the stable, as the angels were actually singing beautiful Christmas songs polyphonic.

It sounded beautifully and echoed through the dead silent Common Room. Draco felt a huge smile form on his face and turned slightly to look at Harry who looked as if he had won the Quidditch World Cup all by himself.

“It’s beautiful!” Draco whispered to him and turned back to the angels.

Harry silently nodded and they stood there for a few more moments. Finally, Draco made his way through the people and touched the stable, only for Mary to appear. That was somehow obvious, since tomorrow was probably going to be for baby Jesus and somehow Mary should have arrived at the stable as well.

The figurines made space and helped her lie down in the stable. Combined with the beautiful singing of the three angels, it made everything much more Christmassy.

“Thank you.” Draco smiled, when he was standing next to Harry again. The Gryffindor grinned and nodded. “And just for your information, Golden Boy, I’m pretty sure you’re the one having made this present. Now, that I can sense your magical signature so much better, I recognize it on the stable.”

Harry chuckled. “True, I completely forgot about the magical signature…”

Draco just wanted to say something about it and quite possibly mock him for his forgetfulness, when Harry captured his lips in a soft kiss and actually made him forget everything.


	24. 24th December

“So, where’s your decoration?” Harry looked around the room, while Draco smirked slightly, watching him closely. The more time he spent around the Gryffindor, the more he had started to be able to read his body language. Right now it was something between disbelief and surprise that besides the stable (where baby Jesus had appeared in the manger this morning), there was nothing else even remotely saying that it was Christmas Eve inside the Slytherin Common Room.

Theo appeared next to the Golden Boy rather quickly. “In Slytherin, we never really got any decorations.”

Harry frowned slightly. “Because you don’t want to?”

He looked over to Draco, who shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe because Dumbledore had an eye for Gryffindors but not Slytherins. We don’t know that. Most people just think that since we’re purebloods, we don’t care about the holiday.”

“Well, do you care about it?” Harry walked over and sat down next to him and smiled faintly, while running his fingers through Draco’s hair.

“Of course we do, Potter” Pansy spoke up and rolled her eyes. “But as your boyfriend just said: we don’t get any decorations.”

It was quiet, though Draco had to admit that he couldn’t really concentrate on anything that much, since Harry’s hand in his hair felt so damn amazing. After some time, he looked up and realized that most classmates were staring at him.

Deeply red, Draco rolled his eyes. “What?!”

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Harry smiling softly. Pansy laughed loudly, Theo and Gregory joining as well.

“It’s actually nice to see you so relaxed, Draco. And I can’t believe that it took _Harry freaking Potter_ to do that” Blaise answered and winked at Draco’s boyfriend.

Luckily, the Gryffindor rolled his eyes. Any other actions would have made Draco incredibly jealous. He sighed, sat up straight and grabbed Harry’s hands, holding it in his own. “Alright, so what do we do for the decorations? It’s only… one day!”

Harry smirked. “I know a place…”

Every Slytherin suddenly seemed to be quiet and looked at Harry in a confused way. He turned to Draco and Gregory and frowned slightly. “You don’t have to come with me, though. It’s the Room of Requirement.”

“Oh.”

Draco could tell by Gregory’s expression that he was certainly never going back inside there. It was pure luck (and Harry’s influence) that had prevented any of the ‘children’ from going to Azkaban. Otherwise, Draco was sure all of them would have had to serve at least the lightest sentence, which was about eight months in there.

“Let’s go.” Draco got up and pulled Harry with him.

He loved to see the slightly concerned expression on the Gryffindor’s face. “Are you sure you want to go back there?”

Nodding softly, Draco made sure that Harry didn’t think he just did this because he wanted to pretend to be stronger that he was in reality. Well… He was actually pretending to be stronger than he was…. However: with Harry by his side, nothing bad could happen, right?

Both of them made their way up to the seventh floor, where Harry walked a few lines in front of the room, before a door opened. It warmed Draco’s heart to see the Gryffindor looking at him as if assessing him.

“Are you okay and ready?” the Golden Boy asked.

Draco nodded and followed Harry into the Hidden Room. It looked completely different from what Draco had last seen and he instantly started to like it. There were mountains of different colored holiday chains, Christmas stockings even Christmas pillows. There were candles, wall decorations, even light figures and small fake Christmas trees.

“Do you think we can take these things out of here? Do you think they’ll work?” Draco asked as he turned around to look at Harry.

His boyfriend chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. But there’s only one way to find out.” He grabbed a few holiday lights, shrunk them and put them into his satchel, which he had probably brought for this exact purpose.

Draco smirked and shrunk some light figurines, Christmas pillows and fake Christmas trees. He handed everything to Harry who laughed, but allowed him to put everything in his satchel. They had stopped after twenty minutes of silent work and finally ended up walking back into the Common Room.

Both were welcomed warmly by the Slytherins and it turned out that the magic which created these devices actually worked outside the Room of Requirement. Harry even figured out how to active the lights, since there wasn’t any plugs (which Muggles apparently used for things like this).

And in two shakes of a dog’s tail, the lights were around the room and the Slytherin Common Room looked so much like Christmas that no one even dared to say anything for about twenty minutes, after which Harry asked whether or not everyone was okay…


	25. 25th December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!
> 
> My present to you is 3 more chapters after today (one for each day). :D

“It’s present time, Harry!”

Draco smirked over Harry’s surprised look, when he had snuck up behind him. Actually, Harry had been doing some homework with Draco’s friends for the past two hours, but now, Draco needed for him to get the present. He couldn’t wait any longer.

Theodore laughed loudly and placed his books on the floor. “I agree with Draco! It’s time we give presents. It has been almost a full day with the presents under the tree.”

Pansy, Blaise and Gregory agreed as well and they walked over to the tree, grabbing their presents. Draco noted how Harry looked slightly embarrassed, so he sat down beside him.

“Are you okay, chéri?”

Harry smiled at him, seemingly unsure of what to say. He seemed to get over that rather quickly, though he did turn slightly red. “I totally forgot about the Christmas present. To be honest, I was thinking of presenting myself as a present.”

Draco smirked. “In inappropriate clothing or something?”

“What? No” Harry clearly tried to keep it together, but started laughing shortly after. “You’re terrible, Draco.”

“Nevertheless, you still love me.”

“I do.”

“Well, I love you too.”

Their discussion was interrupted by Blaise standing in front of them and staring as if something very weird had happened. Additionally to the fact that he looked as if he had just seen something very scary, he also seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

That was until Pansy walked over to them and looked at Draco clearly surprised. “Did you just say that you love him?” she asked Draco.

Looking up, Draco frowned slightly. “Yes. Why would you be interested in that?”

“You’ve been a couple for not even ten days!” Blaise said, well almost shouted.

Harry started laughing and shook his head. “In all fairness, Blaise, we said that we loved each other two days after you found out I was the person having made this present.”

Every Slytherin in the room was standing there with an open mouth, which Draco loved to bits. This scene, he was going to have in a loop in a Pensive if he ever got himself one of those.

Theodore walked over to them and shook his head. “So, when can we expect the wedding invitations?”

“Oh, thank you for the reminder, Theodore!” Harry said and with a fluent movement of his hand, some wedding invitations appeared, which were clearly fake, but it left everyone speechless for a while. At least until Pansy figured it out and decided to play the part as well.

She turned to the boys and grinned. “I can’t believe you didn’t notice! But Harry and Draco asked me to plan their wedding in five days, as you can see!”

“This is crazy!” Blaise shouted and threw his hands in the air. His wedding invitation sailed through the air. “You guys haven’t been together for longer than a few days! How can you know that you work as a couple!?”

In that moment, Theodore and Gregory seemed to realize that it was a joke and Blaise caught on quickly as well. Harry laughed and buried his face in Draco’s neck, while the other Slytherin walked back to the tree.

Draco smirked, grabbed a small present next to him and put it into Harry’s lap, who looked at it rather interested.

“What is it?”

“Open it to find out, chéri.”

Harry grinned at him and carefully opened it. Draco was slightly nervous what he would think of it, since he hadn’t really seen Harry walking around with jewelry and this was quite a stretch, but maybe he would like it well enough to wear it sometimes.

After Harry had opened the box, he was frozen for a few seconds. Draco was almost about to say that he could exchange it for something else, when the Gryffindor softly touched the simple necklace. It was just a small three colored button on a black string. The Golden Boy brushed over the button with his thumb as if he couldn’t believe it.

“It’s the colors from the Malfoy crest isn’t it?” Harry asked and looked up at Draco.

He nodded hesitantly. “I wasn’t sure whether or not you’d like it, but I thought black, green and silver could mean anything if you didn’t know.”

Harry smiled and leaned in to kiss him softly. “Thank you. Now I can always have something from you with me.”


	26. 26th December

Draco opened his eyes to find Harry sleeping right next to him. Around his neck was the necklace Draco had given him yesterday. He hadn’t taken it off, except when he went to shower, but the next thing Draco knew, he had been wearing it again.

When was the last time Harry had been in his own bed? Actually, when was the last time, Harry had been in his own tower? Not that Draco would be complaining… He loved to have the Gryffindor so close whenever he woke up. 

That second, the Gryffindor slowly opened his eyes. Draco smiled weakly, still a little asleep. He leaned over and kissed his boyfriend’s cheek. “Morning, love.”

Harry smiled, made a soft, still very sleepy sound and nuzzled into Draco’s chest. Kissing the top of his boyfriend’s head, Draco put both his arms around him and held him tightly. A few months ago, he would have never thought that he could be so happy. And with the Gryffindor no less.

Yes, he’d always had a thing for him, but he never realized it, with the threat of not surviving right there. Harry inhaled deeply and it seemed as if he had fallen asleep again.

There was a soft knock on the door and it opened quietly. Draco looked over and saw Pansy sticking her head through the small opening. When she saw him awake, she opened it wide and walked in completely.

“You’re awake!” she started, but stopped talking quickly, when Draco threw her a death glare. She looked closer and seemed to notice how Harry was asleep.

All of Slytherin had noticed how Harry had trouble sleeping and they had always been extremely quiet when the Gryffindor had finally fallen asleep. Yesterday, the same thing happened. The people, who had stayed awake for something, were clearly worried about how Harry hadn’t shown any sign of being tired. Luckily, after a few hours, he had fallen asleep in Draco’s arms.

“Sorry” Pansy whispered. “We’re outside, trying to start a snowball fight with another house, if you’d like to join us.”

“Only if it’s not Gryffindor.”

Pansy grinned and nodded. “Hufflepuff’s outside now.”

Draco chuckled and agreed. “I’m not waking him up, but if he wakes up by himself, we’re your backup.”

His best friend gave him the thumbs up and left again, softly closing the door behind her. Draco smiled, when he heard a few excited whispers outside his room and snuggled back under his blanket.

Harry made a soft noise, but didn’t wake up. Draco kissed the top of his head once again. He was so happy. Never in the past few years would he have thought that he could have ever ended up happy. In his younger years, his father was telling him that there was no other way but an arranged marriage. And then, when the Dark Lord lived in his home, he was way too terrified to think that he could get out of this alive. And the Battle at Hogwarts as well… Harry saved them all, but Draco had thought that deep down, he hadn’t deserved to be happy. 

And then his trial. The first time in _years_ where he had started to feel something was when Harry had stood up for every Slytherin student, even Pansy. _They’re just children. We were just children. Our parents made their war ours. We shouldn’t be punished for something we were thrown into without having a saying. Which is why I am here on behalf of every student who took part in the Battle of Hogwarts_ , Harry had told the Ministry.

“What are you thinking about, Draco?”

Draco looked up and found Harry awake in his arms smiling slightly. His hand traveled to his hair, stroked him and then moved to his lips.

“You” Draco answered and smiled warmly. Harry returned his smile and leaned in to kiss him. “I love you, Harry.”

“I love you too.”


	27. 27th December

“I have a surprise for you.”

Draco noticed how Harry looked up intrigued. He grinned at his boyfriend, while he rolled his eyes. “What surprise?”

Laughing, Draco shrugged his shoulders. “If I’d tell you now, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Ah, I see your logic. Tell me at least if we have to go outside, so I can dress appropriately.”

“We are going outside.”

Nodding, Harry got up and wanted to go to Draco’s room, where yesterday, all his clothes had appeared as if the house elves had known that the Gryffindor spent his days here. However, Draco held him back with his winter jacket.

The Golden Boy looked at it and then back at Draco. “You’re prepared.”

“Of course, I am!” Draco grinned and helped him into his jacket, gentleman like, before getting his own. He waved to his friends who grinned knowingly.

They silently walked down to Hogsmeade and Draco grabbed Harry’s hand and left Hogsmeade behind them. Then, a few steps after the small town, there stood a blue sleigh. Draco smiled at the two beautiful white horses that were harnessed in front of it.

Harry had stopped walking and simply stared at it, before he turned to face Draco. “Did you… Is this the surprise?”

Draco smirked. “Yes, it is. We’re going for a sleigh ride.”

“I… I’ve always wanted to do that. How did you do this!?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Draco smiled at his boyfriend. “You talked about it two days ago. And I decided that if I want to be the perfect boyfriend I should probably listen to what you have to say.”

The Golden Boy was clearly blown away by what was happening right now. “But this… Draco, it’s too much! I didn’t even give you anything for Christmas! And you’re…”

“You gave me the perfect present, Harry. You gave me a beautiful stable and on top of that a boyfriend.” 

“You mean on top of the stable?” Harry asked and jumped out of reach of Draco's soft punch into his shoulder. He laughed as Draco smirked, happy with the knowledge that his boyfriend was doing fine.

Draco winked at the Gryffindor who turned slightly red, not bothering to correct Harry, “I just want to show you that I listen to what you’re saying. And if I can somehow grant your wishes, I will do anything.”

Harry grinned at him and chuckled a little. “You’re head over heels in love, right?”

“Madly.” Draco smiled. “And you?”

“Every day I think I can’t possibly fall more in love with you and then you do… this” he pointed at the sleigh. “And I realize I was wrong. I don’t think my love know boundaries.”

Draco smiled and kissed Harry softly. “Should we go then?” he pointed at the sleigh and Harry nodded, smiling at him.

The coachman appeared and the two climbed onto the back, a warm fur covered their legs and Draco grabbed his boyfriend, put an arm around him and kissed his temple. Harry leaned at him and with this huge smile on his face, Draco was sure that he had made the perfect decision.

The sleigh moved forward and soon, they were surrounded by the white beauty of snow-covered landscapes and trees in hibernation.


	28. 28th December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter, yet. I want to thank all of you for reading it and commenting and giving kudos. It was really fun to write this and I hope you had fun reading it!

Draco couldn’t believe how much love Harry had in him. This morning, Draco had told Harry that his mother was getting out of Azkaban, but that she had no place to live, since the Ministry had raided the Manor, freed all the elves and basically destroyed their home.

And now, Pansy, Blaise and Theodore had travelled with the two of them to Grimmauld Place 12, cleaning it up and making it livable for Narcissa Malfoy. Harry had only said that he didn’t really want this place, since it reminded him of his godfather and that if his mother wanted to live in her childhood home, Harry was okay with giving it to her.

This meant so much to Draco that he wasn’t able to say something for several minutes and once Harry asked whether or not he was okay, he had just started crying. In front of Harry. Nobody had ever seen him cry.

Instead of making fun of him, Harry had wrapped his arms around him and let him cry until all of his emotions were out of his body. Draco had feared that now Harry would hold this against him, however, he had never even mentioned it. And it made Draco feel even more loved.

So, five Hogwarts students were inside Grimmauld Place, cleaning it and taking things down, repairing broken stuff. Harry’s godfather had done a good job already, however, during the war, a few things had been destroyed again and those things needed to be done.

While the five of them cleaned up, they talked about their favorite Christmas meal of all time. It was a little difficult to talk right now, since they were trying to remove Walburga Black from the wall. And she was screaming at Harry for being a half-blood. And also at him for trying to remove her.

“Harry, which spells have you tried already?” Theodore asked while he took out his wand and frowned at the lady in the portrait.

The Gryffindor never got to answer, as Walburga Black started screaming loudly. “Son of a Mudblood! Halfblood filth! How dare you befoul my family’s…”

She seemingly wanted to go on, but was suddenly silenced. Draco looked at Harry, who was a visibly down from what the idiot portrait had said. He then looked at the portrait and saw her having a black ribbon over her mouth which she couldn’t seem to get off.

Pansy grinned. “So, now that this problem is solved, which spells have you tried?”

Harry was still a little stricken by what Walburga had said, so Draco walked over and pulled him into a tight embrace. “Don’t listen to what that stupid portrait tells you, Harry.”

Theodore, Pansy and Blaise smiled and said something like that as well, before trying some spells of their own.

“I’m sorry, Draco” Harry said quietly. “This house has a way to mess with my feelings.”

“It’s okay, love. I get you.” He kissed Harry’s forehead. “Maybe you could tell me what your favorite Christmas meal is.”

Pansy turned around as well. “We all want to know that, Harry!”

The Gryffindor chuckled and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know, honestly. I guess pigs in blankets?”

Draco noticed how all the Slytherins frowned at his answer slightly. Blaise was the one who started to talk. “How come you don’t know what your favorite meal is? Everyone had one!”

“At least one” Theodore added and grinned. He had instead of one favorite meal, named three when he had explained his.

Harry shrugged and blushed slightly. “Christmas as a child was never fun and after that I just had Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. They just do whatever the Headmaster likes the most.”

Pansy shook her head. “Why wasn’t Christmas fun as a child? As a child it’s the most amazing thing ever! You see presents under the tree, beautiful music, candles at the tree, everything is magical!”

Theodore snickered. “Because our daily life isn’t _magical_.”

Draco had felt how Harry had tensed up slightly and hugged him even closer. “You don’t need to say anything, Harry.”

Nodding, the Gryffindor looked up at him. “I know, but I feel as if you guys have to know.” He was quiet again.

In this silence, Blaise had thrown a spell at the portrait which finally made it go off the walls. Walburga screeched and Draco pulled Harry away from the stairs, where the portrait fell and then slid down.

“Well done, Blaise!” Theodore called out and they made their way down the stairs. Theodore and Blaise brought the portrait somewhere, while Pansy stayed with Draco and Harry.

“My aunt and uncle never wanted me to be part of their Christmas traditions” the Gryffindor finally started talking. The two Slytherin came back into the living room, when Harry continued. “I had to make their food, but then I was supposed to go back into my… room. I never really liked those holidays.”

Draco had a feeling that Harry wasn’t saying everything, however, maybe someday Draco would find out everything about that. He especially didn’t like the short break in front of ‘room’.

“Well, we’ll change that for good!” Pansy said and smiled at him. “From now on, we will show you that Christmas is an amazing time!”

Draco grinned at his boyfriend. “Pansy loves Christmas” he whispered while Harry smirked slightly. That was all he had wanted. A small smile from his boyfriend, to show the people that he could still be happy.

Before anybody could say something, Harry’s house-elf appeared and smiled at them. They suddenly were all having their favorite meal on the table about which they had been talking all this time. Pansy basically screamed and thanked Kreacher loudly while Harry started laughing and Theodore, who usually was more thoughtful, grabbed a plate and filled it to the brink.

Taking a plate as well, Draco filled it with everyone’s favorite food. He placed it in front of Harry. “We’ll start with all of our favorite foods. Try it and tell us who won this round of Christmas food.”

“Is this a yearly game or what?” Harry questioned, but grinned broadly.

“If you want it to be, yes” Draco answered and winked at him.

They all spent a few more hours in this house, cleaning and talking. And two days after that, Draco’s mother finally got out of Azkaban and moved into Grimmauld Place 12. Draco loved to see how well his mother and Harry got on together. And soon, Draco’s mother seemed to have realized that Harry needed a mother figure and became this person.

Harry and Draco worked on the stable, changing the few magic problems which Harry hadn’t figured out and they removed the bells from around Harry. They also made the cat and dog be friends, but when Harry wanted to change Apricat’s color, Draco had vehemently denied helping him and so it stayed the same.

The little stable had started to become a Christmas tradition on itself and once Harry and Draco moved in together, they held small soirees for close friends all throughout December and revealed a new figurine every night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never done a daily writing challenge (well to be honest, I was afraid I couldn't write every day, so most of it was pre-written and only updated every day). It was hard sometimes but I think it was worth it. I hope you guys enjoyed the story and I thank everyone for your continued interests (and comments). Thank you!
> 
> Anyway, thank you very much and happy New Year (in a few days)!


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